RAPPoff Inaugural Tournament 4/4/09 at Rappahannock County

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:42 am

Rappahannock County High School in scenic Washington, VA is pleased to announce it will be hosting its inaugural tournament, the RAPPoff, on April 4, 2009. All teams are invited to this spectacular event, which, in spite of Rappahannock's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains, will be gangsta and bling-themed.

We will be using HSAPQ's NSC-1 Question Set, which was used at VCU Fall on December 13, 2008.

Cost:
$70 per team
-$5 per (working) buzzer set
-$5 per (working) moderator/staff member
-$5 per team for early registration (by March 16th)

Format:
We intend to cap the field at 16 teams, first come, first serve. If we get to 16 teams, we will divide into two round robin brackets of 8, and then we will likely have some afternoon round robin playoff bracket. I would like to believe that we will be done by 5:00.

For lunch, there will likely be concessions for sale (there isn't a town which serves chain food for about 15 miles).

To register initially, post on here, but preferably email me at pretzeldude92 AT msn DOT com.In conclusion, come to the RAPPoff! We will have magnificent trophies and a fabulous neg prize! It's sure to be a

Yours Truly,
Your DJ A.J.

intothenegs · Post by **intothenegs** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:55 am

We're in.

Whiter Hydra · Post by **Whiter Hydra** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:41 pm

TJ would probably be interested in fielding a few teams.

mithokie · Post by **mithokie** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:56 pm

Auburn High School is expressing interest.

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:20 pm

Howard High School has interest. Availability is likely to be questionable until near the tournament date.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 4:51 pm

Hey, we will be using NSC-1, which was used at VCU on December 13, so teams who went to that won't be able to be G with us.

Tower Monarch · Post by **Tower Monarch** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 5:36 pm

pretzeldude92 wrote:Hey, we will be using NSC-1, which was used at VCU on December 13, so teams who went to that won't be able to be G with us.

I don't think this will be too much of a problem as that was only an 8-team tournament and at least three of those teams (Cosby included) have not traveled an hour for a tournament before, and would likely not attend otherwise. If you need it, that list is just: MW, Cosby, Freeman, New Kent x2, Tucker, Howard, and Midlothian.

Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:14 pm

We most likely wouldn't have been able to come anyway, since that's the first Saturday of our spring break and we might've had trouble getting a team together... NSC-1 was a good set. Best of luck to you guys running your first tournament.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:11 pm

Thanks Sarah. I certainly hope it will go well.

And yeah I figured that NSC-1 wouldn't be as big of a problem as some of the other sets.

Any team which wishes to register should email me at pretzeldude92 AT msn DOT com. State team name, number of buzzer systems, number of moderators, etc.

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 5:50 pm

I don't think this will be too much of a problem as that was only an 8-team tournament and at least three of those teams (Cosby included) have not traveled an hour for a tournament before, and would likely not attend otherwise. If you need it, that list is just: MW, Cosby, Freeman, New Kent x2, Tucker, Howard, and Midlothian.[/quote]

We had just two students on our team at VCU (Collegiate), so I'd still consider bringing a team of anyone but those two as long as Rappahannock has no problem with that. On the other hand, that may send us back to looking at State College again, too.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:35 am

We are now PACE affiliated. I know. Dats tight.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 6:23 pm

New news:

I don't think we will be able to let Howard go. Nothing personal, but it might look a little sketchy.

Secondly, teams who wish to go should e-mail me. My e-mail is in the first post. We are also sending out a letter soon.

Thirdly, we are likely going to do a trash game/tournament of some sort during lunch.

Peace.

Auroni · Post by **Auroni** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:08 pm

pretzeldude92 wrote:New news:

I don't think we will be able to let Howard go. Nothing personal, but it might look a little sketchy.

Excuse me for my ignorance, but why?

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:23 pm

They attended the VCU tournament which used the same questions, and were inquiring whether they could bring separate students to our tournament.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:01 am

Field Update Post:

Registered:
Georgetown Day
Gonzaga
James Monroe
James River
Sidwell Friends

Expressed Interest (here or elsewhere):
James Monroe B and/or C
TJHSST
Auburn
Sidwell Friends B?
GDS B?

I encourage people who wish to receive the early registration discount to register prior to March 16 either by e-mailing me or sending me a message on facebook. I won't have internet access from March 7-13, but everything will be organized upon my return.

STPickrell · Post by **STPickrell** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:13 pm

pretzeldude92 wrote:James River (per a teammate)

Buchanan or Chesterfield?

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:52 pm

Chesterfield

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:17 pm

pretzeldude92 wrote: I don't think we will be able to let Howard go. Nothing personal, but it might look a little sketchy.

No offense taken. Best of luck with the tournament and to the teams that attend.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:31 pm

Reminder that early discount will continue through Monday and Monday only!

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:55 pm

So far we have five teams registered, and I would encourage teams to sign-up as soon as possible.

Additionally, we are in the process of writing our trash/pop culture questions for lunch. They encompass a wide distribution of pop culture topics.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:20 am

New Field Update:

Registered:
Georgetown Day
Gonzaga
James Monroe
James River
Sidwell Friends

Expressed Interest (here or elsewhere):
James Monroe B and/or C
TJHSST
Auburn
Sidwell Friends B?
GDS B?
Spotswood
Fauquier

mithokie · Post by **mithokie** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:37 am

What time is the tournament starting, or more appropriately, what time should we be there? I need to know for arranging transportation.
Thanks!

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:08 pm

Our plan is to start the tournament at 9:00 A.M., with some brief meeting at that time. We should then be able to complete five rounds before lunch. At least that is our current goal...

Additionally, for teams that signed up and haven't stated how many buzzers/moderators they will be bringing, we would like this info soon so that we can plan accordingly.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 5:01 pm

Newer Field Update:

Registered:
Auburn
Georgetown Day
Gonzaga
James Monroe
James River
Sidwell Friends

Expressed Interest (here or elsewhere):
James Monroe B and/or C
TJHSST
Auburn B?
Sidwell Friends B?
GDS B?
Spotswood
Fauquier

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:05 pm

Even newer field update:

Registered (13 teams):
Auburn (2 buzzer)
Churchill x2 (1 buzzer)
Collegiate (1 buzzer)
Georgetown Day
Gonzaga (1 buzzer)
James Monroe (1 buzzer)
James River (1 buzzer, 1 moderator)
Sidwell Friends
St. Anselm's
"Tei Suma School of Profitable Anesthesia" (2 buzzers, 1 moderator)
"Hogwarts School of Starcraft and Scientology"
Walter Johnson

Expressed Interest (here or elsewhere):
Sidwell Friends B?
GDS B?
Spotswood
Fauquier

Many teams have stated that they are extremely interested/might be bringing an extra team. Just confirm with me by Wednesday at the latest. By our Thursday practice, I should have a format update.

UPDATE: Basically, I have written either guarantees or likelies from the 11 teams under the registered column. This field is lookin' pretty fly. But teams should confirm buzzers or B teams or anything else soon.

Post by **Kouign Amann** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:16 pm

I may be interested in coming down to play this with some number of teammates that could be anywhere from 0 to 3 depending on what the track meet schedule turns out to be this weekend. The issue of playing as "St. Anselm's" is also up in the air, as I haven't asked our coach yet either. However, teammates and coaching are both looking kind of low on the probability scale at this moment, and I may end up coming by myself or not at all. I've never played anything solo before, but I think it could be cool, even if not providing a good chance of doing well. Sorry for the late notice. I'll talk to people on Monday and get back to you.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:04 am

It's cool. We would be more than willing to accommodate you playing solo, if you do indeed choose to come. If you bring some other members of the St. Anselm's crew, that would be cool too.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:14 pm

1. HSAPQ sent us the questions today.
2. We currently are planning on having various concessions available for lunch (pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, soft drinks, desserts).
3. When teams register in the morning (I guess between 8-8:45, and we should have some sort of modest breakfast), one member of each team can sign up for our trash round during lunch, with players being distributed on trash teams at random. If enough people are interested, we might be able to have two rooms. Winners of matches will receive some prize.
4. Basically, I have rough schedules drawn up for 10/12/14/16 teams. I think there will be guarantees of about 9 matches per team, plus finals.
5. If there are any other moderators out there (for hire) on this weekend, we would much appreciate it.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:36 pm

I sent this out to coaches or players of the appropriate teams earlier. Basically, we are at 13 teams, so a 14th would be nice. Really nice.

Dear Coaches and/or Players:

First off, thank you for signing up for the RAPPoff on April 4, 2009 at Rappahannock County High School.

The current field is as follows:

Auburn (2 buzzer)
Churchill x2 (1 buzzer)
Collegiate (1 buzzer)
Georgetown Day
Gonzaga (1 buzzer)
James Monroe (1 buzzer)
James River (1 buzzer, 1 moderator)
Sidwell Friends
St. Anselm's
"Tei Suma School of Profitable Anesthesia" (2 buzzers, 1 moderator)
"Hogwarts School of Starcraft and Scientology"
Walter Johnson

If any team wishes to sign up a B team or make any other edits to this list, please confirm by Thursday at the latest. In the event that there is an odd number of teams on Saturday, we would like to add a SCAB team, if possible, in order to avoid byes.

Format/Schedule:

Check-in will occur between 8 and 9 A.M. Teams can park in the side parking lot, or a bus could drop students off in the front loop of the school. The door most accessible from the side parking lot should be unlocked, and teams will be able to enter there. The actual check-in desk will be in the front hallway of the school, and our team will be able to direct you there, if needed. At check-in, one member of each team can choose to sign up for the trash/pop culture question set to be read during the last half hour of lunch. If enough people are interested, we can do more than one room for the trash set.

EDITED FROM EMAIL, BUT WE NOW HAVE THIRTEEN TEAMS, THUS...

If we end up at 14 teams, then we will devise an appropriate format.

A rough schedule for Saturday:
9-9:15 Introductory Meeting
9:15-9:50 Round 1
9:50-10:25 Round 2
10:25-11:00 Round 3
11:00-11:35 Round 4
11:35-12:10 Round 5
12:10-1:00 Lunch (can be altered if we are behind/ahead)
1:00-1:30 Trash Set
1:30-2:05 Round 6
2:05-2:40 Round 7
2:40-3:15 Round 8
3:15-3:50 Round 9
3:50-4:25 Round 10

However, the round schedule will be slightly altered based upon the timing of the meeting in which playoff teams, etc. are announced. Should tiebreakers become necessary, then half-packets will be read to break the ties, and this too might delay. We would prefer that our tournament end by 5, if possible.

The two finalists will receive trophies, and the highest individual scorer will also receive a prize. There will also be prizes for members of the winning pop culture team, and likely other individual scorers as well/

Questions:

The questions provided are the NSC-1 set created by HSAPQ. If you are not familiar with the PACE rules, they can be viewed at http://www.hsapq.com/resources.html. Because this is a PACE-sponsored tournament, and we will have 12ish teams, the top 2 teams will automatically qualify if they had not qualified previously.

Lunch:
We will be selling concessions during our lunch period, including pizza, soft drinks, and desserts/snacks. I think that we will also have hot dogs and hamburgers as well. We don’t have a chain food establishment within 20 miles, so there really aren’t any options elsewhere that will be cheaper/better.

We will also have some form of complimentary breakfast during the check-in period.

Directions:

From North/East DC Area: However you see fit, get on 66 West and take it to the Gainesville exit, taking 29 South. Take 29 South into Warrenton proper, and at the Burger King, take a (yield) right on 211 West to Luray. We are about 24 miles west on the left side of the road. Prior to reaching our high school, you will pass signs for the town of “Little” Washington, then a gas station and bank, then the elementary school/school board complex.

From South/East Fredericksburg or Richmond: Take I-95 north to Fredericksburg and the Route 17 exit. Take route 17 to Warrenton, and continue into town on Route 17 Business. At the intersection where there is a Burger King, take a left on 211 West and follow the above directions.

From West: Take I-81 North to the New Market exit, and follow signs for 211 East. Continue on this road through Luray and over Thornton Gap through the Shenandoah National Park (and enjoy the view). After passing through Sperryville, which will be denoted by Burgers N Things and the Link on your right, you will be about 4 miles from our high school, which will be on the right.

Contact Information:

Since none of us have cell service at the high school, please contact us at 540-987-8575. We will have someone at the phone ready to answer questions. You can also email me or my coach at dwnaser AT rappahannock.k12.va.us.

We look forward to seeing you.

Whiter Hydra · Post by **Whiter Hydra** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:19 pm

Out of curiosity, what will the format be? Will it be something like what we saw at WoQ Sunday?

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:26 pm

There will be two brackets of 7 teams, so each team will have 6 rounds plus a bye. We considered a cross-bracket match, and if there is interest for one that won't count in the standings and we have the resources for it, I would allow for it.

The top two teams from each bracket will play cross-bracket matches, and the two best teams would play in an advantaged final (Tiebreakers if necessary)

The next two teams from each bracket will play cross-bracket matches for "consolation."

Then the bottom three teams in each bracket will play two cross-bracket matches for consolation.

Ergo, every team will get 8 matches over 9 rounds, at the very least. We could have a third place game if there is interest and time, etc. We really want to get everyone out of there at a reasonable time, and since this is our first time hosting a tournament, God only knows how Murphy's law could apply.

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:35 pm

I feel like the field is good enough for it to be meaningful to have 3 cross-bracket matches (i.e. top 6 from the prelims have potential to win the tournament), especially since 8 non-finals rounds are not that many games. But I do understand and respect your concern about ending the tournament at a nice, early time.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:44 pm

I ran a tournament on this set that got in 11 rounds for every team by a normal time, not counting the finals that we didn't end up having to run, that finished up by like 5 (and that may have been included the awards ceremony), so I just want to let you know it shouldn't be too hard to throw in a couple more games for everybody and still get everything done on time. The matches are not as long as regular PACE NSC matches, so it's nowhere near as daunting to get a lot of games in. Actually, they should be easily run in the same amount of time it takes to run 20/20 match, since there are 22 tossups and most of them have shorter than 30 point bonuses. So if you can come up with a schedule that has a couple more games for everyone, I would definitely encourage it and make it known it should be very doable.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:14 pm

I made schedules for both 2 cross-bracket and 3 cross-bracket matches, depending on how ahead/behind we are tomorrow. I would obviously love to maximize the number of matches played by all teams, while hopefully leaving by 5-5:30.

Anyways, see you all tomorrow at the RAPPoff.

P.S. There are 7,000 people in our county, so be amazed by the scarcity of people, especially for those of you coming from the DC metro area. When I moved here, I was.

scquizbowl · Post by **scquizbowl** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:41 pm

Wow, that's a tiny town. Even the StreetView runs out about 20 miles away from the town. Do you know who won this tournament?

Sorry if it is too early, just had to ask.

Joe
James Island '10

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:13 pm

Walter Johnson defeated James Monroe in the final, although the score escapes me.
Gonzaga and Hogwarts (a T.J. non A-team) finished third, although they did not play off the match.

Basically, half of the tournament was improv because Sidwell Friends did not show up, we fell behind, we fell even further behind, some teams left, and then I just had a cross-bracket setup which was de facto single elimination based on how things turned out. Teams could play consolation matches as they chose.

I should have the stats up by Tuesday, as the laptop with stats belongs to another players on my team.

Anyways, I'm prepared for the comments/criticisms. Should this event occur next year, and I truly hope it does, it will be passed onto the shoulders of my teammates, and the comments will be incorporated for next year.

I also hope that teams enjoyed the trash set. Although I was only there briefly, I heard it was a success.

Post by **Kouign Amann** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:16 pm

Overall, I think this tournament was a success, and it was fun to be a part of. Other than the schedule implosion after prelims, things ran relatively smoothly, and we had a good time. HSAPQ did another good job with the questions, and the readers were clear, even if a little slow at times. One thing I would advocate improving on would be communication between staff and players. After prelims, all the teams except for those in the top four were left to fend for themselves after only a brief explanation of how thing were going to work. Nobody with any authority could be found to help allocate buzzers and moderators. I think this resulted in many of the teams leaving, and only one consolation round getting played. Other than that, kudos on a good tournament, and good luck if you do indeed decide to hold it again.

lagazzaladra · Post by **lagazzaladra** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:30 pm

In general, I felt that this was a very good tournament, considering that this was your first time hosting a tournament and that you had to reorganize the brackets for missing teams. My only comment would be that I was not completely satisfied with some of the moderating, but I would still be interested in attending RAPPoff if it is held next year. Congratulations to Walter Johnson and James Monroe for their first and second place finishes, and to Rappahannock for hosting this tournament.

intothenegs · Post by **intothenegs** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:14 pm

I'd like to thank Rappahannock County for putting on this tournament today. There were a number of problems with scheduling and moderators, but overall, this was a good job for a team putting on it's first tournament. I did feel that some moderators spent more time talking to teams than actually reading; not having that happen might have made this tournament move much faster and could've allowed teams that wished to play a few more rounds to do so. There was also very little organization for teams to scrimmage in bye rounds, and there seemed to be times of general confusion in which teams weren't sure where they needed to be.

So good job to A.J. and Rappahannock for a relatively good first tournament, and congratulations to Walter Johnson for a brilliant performance today.

Edit for grammar.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:45 pm

Prof.Whoopie wrote:Overall, I think this tournament was a success, and it was fun to be a part of. Other than the schedule implosion after prelims, things ran relatively smoothly, and we had a good time. HSAPQ did another good job with the questions, and the readers were clear, even if a little slow at times. One thing I would advocate improving on would be communication between staff and players. After prelims, all the teams except for those in the top four were left to fend for themselves after only a brief explanation of how thing were going to work. Nobody with any authority could be found to help allocate buzzers and moderators. I think this resulted in many of the teams leaving, and only one consolation round getting played. Other than that, kudos on a good tournament, and good luck if you do indeed decide to hold it again.

Yeah, the whole fending for yourselves thing stemmed from me not having talked to my coach + moderators to see who would continue to be there, so that we could not find appropriate rooms for matches, etc. My coach said that there were two? "consolation" matches going on while the top 4 teams played each other. Sorry about this though.

lagazzaladra wrote:In general, I felt that this was a very good tournament, considering that this was your first time hosting a tournament and that you had to reorganize the brackets for missing teams. My only comment would be that I was not completely satisfied with some of the moderating, but I would still be interested in attending RAPPoff if it is held next year. Congratulations to Walter Johnson and James Monroe for their first and second place finishes, and to Rappahannock for hosting this tournament.

The moderating problem, I believe, refers to a couple of moderators who were incredibly slow and painful, especially after lunch. I don't know exactly how some of the moderators became readers and scorers; this was something left out of my hands. I don't like it when things are left out of my hands.

intothenegs wrote:I'd like to thank Rappahannock County for putting on this tournament today. There were a number of problems with scheduling and moderators, but overall, this was a good job for a team putting on it's first tournament. I did feel that some moderators spent more time talking to teams than actually reading; not having that happen might have made this tournament move much faster and could've allowed teams that wished to play a few more rounds to do so. There was also very little organization for teams to scrimmage in bye rounds, and there seemed to be times of general confusion in which teams weren't sure they needed to be.

So good job to A.J. and Rappahannock for a relatively good first tournament, and congratulations to Walter Johnson for a brilliant performance today.

I think I know to which moderator(s) you are referring. I had stated that time was of the essence and that we needed them to go rather speedily; thus when I heard some of the matches were taking nearly an hour, I nearly went crazy. And, on a side note, though I trained the scorers myself, two or three of them had scoresheets that were virtually unintelligible. That also contributed to being behind.

In retrospect, what could've happened is me printing out a six team round robin to finish before lunch omitting Sidwell Friends and SCAB. Had they shown up, we would've switched to a seven team round robin, and the first round would have been an effective bye. Eventually, everyone would have received more matches, and might have gotten out of their earlier as well. I didn't think of this at the time, but that would have been the smart thing to do.

lagazzaladra · Post by **lagazzaladra** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:00 pm

When will the stats be posted?

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:19 pm

Soon. We discovered a glitch today right as we were about to finish them, so we need to sort that out still.

lagazzaladra · Post by **lagazzaladra** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 8:14 pm

Any update on the stats?

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:23 pm

The stats will be up tomorrow morning. We are on spring break, but I have to go to school tomorrow and will upload them then. I know that it seems like I've been putting this off, but we had a few bugs to work out. I didn't have access to the SQBS laptop for more than 1.5 hours a day.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:20 pm

Let's see if this works...

Attached are results of the first annual RAPPoff.

pretzeldude92 · Post by **pretzeldude92** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:24 pm

In the above post, note the following:

A) JM and SCAB did not play their match, as JM opted instead to face Walter Johnson in an unrecorded exhibition match,
B) The PPB is not up, which is weird considering it was in the ZIP file when we uploaded it
C) Some stuff might not add up exactly because this is apparently an older version of our statistics. God only knows what is up with the new one...

Whiter Hydra · Post by **Whiter Hydra** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:58 pm

If what I read from the stats was right, good job fellow comrades.

Post by **Kouign Amann** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:29 pm

Gah, I finish in 5th place by a third of a point. In other news, congrats to Daichi, Dan, and Chuhern for lapping the field and thanks again to A.J. and co. for a fun time.